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New city manager urges better communication in vision for the future

Author of the article:

Sammy Hudes

Publishing date:

October 7, 2019 • 3 minute read

David Duckworth, The City of Calgary's new manager poses in his downtown Calgary office on Thursday, September 12, 2019. Duckworth has been working as the city’s utilities and environmental protection general manager since March 2018.Jim Wells// Postmedia

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Calgary’s new city manager outlined his vision for the future at Monday’s council meeting, vowing better communication within the city’s administration as it prepares for further budget reductions this fall.

David Duckworth, the city’s top bureaucrat, took over the post at the end of August from interim city manager Glenda Cole. He previously served as head of the city’s utilities and environmental protection department.

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Having spent a year and a half working for the City of Calgary, Duckworth told council during his presentation that communication has stood out as an area with room for improvement.

“One of the things that has become clear to me is that we are doing great things on behalf of Calgarians to respond to the economic downturn and help with Calgary’s economic recovery, but in all these great things, I don’t think necessarily that we’ve done a great job of communicating what we’re working on in a clear and consistent way,” he said.

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“I think we need to do a better job, and you’ve heard me say this before, telling our story.”

Calgary’s City Hall was photographed on Tuesday September 3, 2019.Gavin Young/Postmedia

Duckworth said that in the coming weeks, Calgarians would hear more about the city’s initiatives, especially pertaining to support for local businesses, revitalizing the downtown, and maintaining fiscal responsibility.

He said administration needs to “think differently” as it faces the challenges ahead.

“Times in Calgary are different. The oil and gas booms that used to come and go probably aren’t going to come back the way they were before,” Duckworth said.

“We need to look to other municipalities. We need to make sure we’re listening to Calgarians and we’re working together with council as a team, again, to build a world-class city.”

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In July, council approved $60 million in budget reductions affecting 48 areas of service. The cuts meant 233 fewer city jobs, including some eliminated through attrition and retirements, as well as 115 staff layoffs.

Administration has worked since then to come up with potential scenarios for further savings in the upcoming year’s budget. Duckworth said those options will be presented to council Nov. 12.

The scenarios include across-the-board cuts as well as savings in specific areas of service, based on feedback from Calgarians on what they value, according to Duckworth.

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“Cutting services is so difficult because it doesn’t matter what council picks as the cut or administration,” he said, citing his previous experience working for three other municipalities. “We seem to always get it wrong.”

Duckworth added that the city needs to do a better job of attracting top talent, something it has struggled to do.

He said he wants to make sure the city is able to hold onto valuable employees through potential incentives.

A City of Calgary road crew works on 17th Avenue in this April 2019 file photo.Darren Makowichuk/DARREN MAKOWICHUK/Postmedia

“I know maybe a lot of people don’t necessarily agree with this, but we’re having a tough time right now attracting certain professional people in certain professions because the salaries that we provide here are not competitive with the private sector,” he said.

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The city manager’s vision was met with praise from Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

“I think it’s a beautiful articulation of how we need to think and communicate and move forward slightly differently. We’re doing a lot of great things and I think that we have allowed a vacuum of communication to kind of overwhelm that,” he said. “We have to be able to get beyond the negativity and build on this extraordinary place that we’ve got here.”

The looming cuts present an opportunity for council to show Calgarians that it understands their plight, according to Coun. Sean Chu.

“As a city, we have to show citizens that we feel your pain and we lead by example,” he said. “We have to send the right message.”

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